title: Crackling noise during failure of alumina under compression: the effect of porosity.
abstract: We study acoustic emission avalanches during the process of failure of porous alumina samples (Al2O3) under compression. Specimens with different porosities ranging from 30% to 59% have been synthesized from a mixture of fine-grained alumina and graphite. The compressive strength as well as the characteristics of the acoustic activity have been determined. The statistical analysis of the recorded acoustic emission pulses reveals, for all porosities, a broad distribution of energies with a fat tail, compatible with the existence of an underlying critical point. In the region of 35%-55% porosity, the energy distributions of the acoustic emission signals are compatible with a power-law behaviour over two decades in energy with an exponent ϵ = 1.8 ± 0.1.
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Pedro O
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Castillo-Villa
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baró
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Planes
authors.forename: Ekhard K H
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Salje
authors.forename: Pathikumar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sellappan
authors.forename: Waltraud M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Kriven
authors.forename: Eduard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vives
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000537:Aluminum Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D019245:Compressive Strength; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity; D013016:Sound
chemical_list: D006108:Graphite; D000537:Aluminum Oxide